Scotland Debates New Nuclear Capacity

Last week we wrote about how Scotland is taking a fresh look at nuclear energy. In today's edition of the Scotsman, former UK Energy Minister Brian Wilson faced off against Scottish MP Alistair Carmichael on the issue.

Here's Wilson:

At present, Britain gets about 24 per cent of electricity from nuclear power. The figure in Scotland is, of course, double that. Any debate about whether such reliance was desirable is passé. The fact is that it exists and will shortly go into decline. In other words, at the very moment when there is an historic emphasis on increasing the supply of carbon-free electricity, we may be about to countenance the steady erosion of the one significant source of the stuff that we’ve actually got. To put it another way, everything we do on renewables for at least the next 20 years is - in carbon-reduction terms - only going to replace the nuclear power we are wishing away.

For more on nuclear energy's environmental benefits, click here. And click here for a piece from the Guardian on the costs imposed on Britain when it comes to rising demand for natural gas.